Nomos Glashütte is a German watch brand founded by Roland Schwertner in 1990.
History of Nomos Glashütte Watch brand
There are approximately a dozen watch manufactories in the world, three of which are in Germany and all of these are in Glashütte. One of them, the smallest, is NOMOS Glashütte.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, much of the GDR's industry was dismantled,including the East German state owned watch making factory, GUB, situated in Glashütte. The town had a proud watch making tradition that existed long before the wall was erected. But back in the late 1980s all the industrial facilities were antiquated, most of the specialists were gone and almost all of the watches produced in the GDR had quartz calibres. Gray houses, streets that weren't fit to drive on and depressed people. Hardly a house had an inside toilet and in winter a thick cloud of smelly brown coal dust hung over the town. In 1990 Glashütte looked like most places in what was still East Germany.
Roland Schwertner, a MBA from Dusseldorf, dared to make a new start of things – even before Germany's reunification – with a name that had already existed once, nearly 80 years before: NOMOS Glashütte. In his dilapidated three-room apartment, Schwertner – together with three employees – started creating a watch workshop factory. Subsidies only became available in the 1990s; initially it was friends who lent the small firm money. It took a while, though, until things started to look up. Water, sewage and gas pipes were laid in the town; new streets were built. Buildings and facilities were renovated and restored like mad and the town's watch making companies were able to deliver their first models. But not with their own, real Glashütter movements as they do today: back then NOMOS made do with calibres bought in Switzerland that were then finished and refined in Glashütte.
That was all just a short while ago – and yet a world away. Today, in NOMOS's headquarters – Glashütter's renovated old train station – lots of new art hangs on the walls and about 70 people make watches that are sold all over the world. And in 2005 Tangente, Orion, Tetra and Ludwig – the firm's already wellestablished design classics – got a new sibling: NOMOS's first automatic watch, the Tangomat. Ever since manually wound calibres were produced by NOMOS Glashütte and ever since the first automatic movement was constructed here in its entirety, NOMOS has been a manufactory and is one of the aforementioned dozen in the world. Glashütte – even if not idyllic and lovely – has long been up to West German standards and its watch industry, which, back in GDR times, preached to be so without practicing, is now up to „world standards." NOMOS Glashütte, the only one of the town's three manufactories that is still independent, has grown up. In addition to all the affordable manual and automatic watches for which NOMOS is renowned, the company has also long since produced its own chronometers and tourbillons, right here, in Glashütte.
Time Line
10 January 1990: Roland Schwertner establishes NOMOS Glashütte.
1992: NOMOS has three employees; production begins in private dwellings. The company produces four models: Tangente, Orion, Ludwig and Tetra.
1997: The firm expands to a workforce of 14 and moves into its own facilities in Altenberger Straße.
1997: With the construction of a second stop for the existing movement – a refined ETA caliber – NOMOS’s takes its first step towards becoming a manufactory.
2000: Uwe Ahrendt becomes the company’s second manager.
2000: NOMOS grows and now has 31 employees. The chronometry becomes NOMOS’s second location in Glashütte.
2001: NOMOS presents the first date mechanism. It is patented.
2003: NOMOS presents the first power reserve mechanism. This is also awarded a patent.
2004: The town‘s former train station is chosen as the company’s new headquarters. NOMOS buys and substantially renovates it.
2004: The special edition model, Super30, is a hit: it sells out within a few months.
2005: The train station opens. With the construction of its own first automatic calibre (Tangomat), NOMOS becomes a manufactory.
2006: The first chronometer watches, which NOMOS developed for Wempe’s chronometer facility, are presented.
2007: NOMOS introduces a new watch model – the Club.
2008: NOMOS introduces a new, second automatic watch; the Club is now available in four different models: Club, Club Date, Club Automatic, Club Automatic Date.
Nomos Glashütte watches are being exported to Australia, China, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Canada, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, Hungary and United States.
Official website: www.glashuette.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment